Conventional pattern forms for making garments have been known for many years. They have been made in fixed and adjustable sizes and have been mounted on upright stands so that the fabric to be used in making the garment can be mounted directly to the outer surface of the pattern form. Thus, the various segments of the fabric taken from the pattern itself can be pinned together, then removed from the pattern form and stitched to make the resulting garment.
Pattern forms of fixed sizes have a major drawback in that they do not allow for any adjustability in the size of a garment to be made from the fabric which is mounted on a pattern form. The reason for this is that the pattern form may be of the right size in the bust area but not the correct size in the hip and waist areas. This will require many changes in stitching of the garment along various seamlines, all of which requires considerable time and effort to complete. Even when a garment is finally finished, the garment still may not fit correctly because each of the many changes to one part of the garment must be made with changes to other parts of the garment taken into consideration. As a result, fixed pattern forms are not suitable for making garments for persons who differ even slightly in size and shape to the pattern form on which the garment is to be made.
Adjustable pattern forms have also been used considerably in the past. But, notwithstanding their adjustability, they still do not permit a garment to be made in a manner which requires few or no changes in the garment to fit the person. The reason for this is that adjustable pattern forms have a multitude of segmented body parts which are shiftably mounted on an upright stand and, as a unit, have outer surfaces which simulate the single, unitary body of a fixed pattern form except for the fact that the segmented body parts can be shifted about relative to each other for adjustment purposes. The various positions into which the body parts can be shifted must be eyeballed in such a way that the resulting size and shape of the pattern form must appear to look like the size and shape of the body of the person for whom the garment is to be made. This adjustment of the segmented body parts leaves much to be desired because, while the body parts might be properly adjustable in one area, such as in the waist area, the parts could be clearly out of adjustment in the hip and bust areas. Moreover, a slight force sometimes accidentally applied to one or more of these body parts can move them out of adjustment, and it is difficult to put them back into their proper positions. Thus, adjustable pattern forms also leave much to be desired and require much time and effort to be used properly.
Because of the foregoing drawbacks, a need has arisen for a pattern form which enables one to evaluate and make adjustments on tissue patterns before cutting and sewing fabrics and can be easily adjusted and can be used even by persons with only minimal skills in garment making.